Scientists have warned that central Italy faces a serious risk of suffering further devastating earthquakes in the near future. The region – in central Italy north of Rome – has already been struck by three major tremors over the past few weeks. In western Europe, the region with the highest seismic hazard is the mountainous backbone of peninsular Italy, the Apennines. This pulling of the Earth’s crust across Italy leads to the build-up of elastic energy, which is suddenly released, periodically, in earthquakes. “An earthquakes occurs when there is a slip at an underground fault which releases energy.

Source: The Guardian November 05, 2016 21:11 UTC